The billiard table is burned and broken. The pool is a half-filled with fetid
water. Table place settings are strewn across the overgrown lawn.

Her Britannic Majesty's ambassador's residence in Tripoli is filled with charred debris, the leftovers from a fire started when Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime unleashing its goons to loot and destroy the building.

The Union flag flies at the British Ambassador's residence in Tripoli

But last night as the sun set over the newly liberated capital the Union flag flew once again, raised by a newly fashioned Home Guard of Libyans who are protecting some of Tripoli's status buildings.

"We know this is very important," said a Kalashnikov-toting leader, who asked not to be named but who lives in an apartment block nearby. "One of our boys has put up the flag again. We are very happy now."

The Daily Telegraph travelled to the building on a rise overlooking the city harbour, a day after the regime melted away in the face of an opposition onslaught.

The destruction of the building, along with the Italian and French residences, had been carried out in protest at the establishment of a UN no fly zone enforced by Nato jets.

"When the people came here to see what was happening, they found Gaddafi's men," said Osama Driebi, a retired businessman. "My son came here and he was disgusted. The security said take what you want, take what you can. They had already looted the place of course."

On the driveway outside a marble memorial to the Desert Rats campaign in north Africa lies shattered. Four burned out embassy cars sit in the portico of the building. A broken dishwasher contains cracked pieces of a bone china set. A children's play room still contains charred pieces of Monopoly and Backgammon games.

The UK government's art collection has said the loss of art works in the attack was significant.

Among the renowned works lost was Reinagle's Harrier Killing a Bittern, 1797, Edmund Havell Jr's William Stratton, 1840, and Salvador Rosa, Mountainous Landscape with Travellers.

The Royal portraits were three metres high.

Strewn among the debris and waste yesterday were clues to why Libya had so resented the U-turn in British foreign policy following the February 17 uprising against Col Gaddafi's regime.

One page sets out the first points of an accord on defence co-operation between the UK and Libya for defence sales in 2007. "To build a stable and long term special relationship between the two countries as equal partners, proceeding from the principle of mutual respect and confidence," the accord stated.

Nearby 15 bags of shredded paper sits dumped in a heap. Parts of a briefing paper on the political situation in Libya were also sitting in the open.

Across the Libyan capital a welter of information on the regime's dealings with the outside world sits stored in filing cabinets and locked boxes.

In the deserted office block of Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, Libya's former prime minister, notepads sat on the cabinet table. An airline pilot's briefcase contained begging letters to the de facto head of the Libyan government.

An Ernst and Young power point presentation to the Libyan government on investment strategies also languished in the case.

In a side room to the office, a small pile of shredded papers sits on the floor.

The oval shaped table was surrounded by green leather chairs in a room with a two ornate chandeliers and flock curtains.

Ordinary Libyans from the houses around government installations were guarding the gates. Many are zealous in their duties and have not allowed visitors to open locked doors.

There has been no sign yet of the frenzy of looting of government offices that accompanied the fall of Baghdad.

"We are protecting our national assets and waiting for the rebel leadership to come to decide what to do with this space," said a guard at the shuttered Foreign Ministry.

The opposition Transition National Council based in Benghazi has said key leaders will be in situ in the capital in two days.

But the presence of loyalists continuing to fight the regime from strongholds in Abu Salim and Hatra districts to the south of the Bab al-Azizia leadership is fuelling a damaging atmosphere of suspicion.

"The Gaddafis have gone to Abu Salim with many militias from where they are attacking us," said Mohammad Abugabha, 22, an airline pilot who manned a checkpoint near the central Tripoli mosque. "There are many, many there from Algeria and Africa. They are very dangerous."

Visitors to Bab al-Azizia were forced to flee for their lives Wednesday afternoon after mortar fire and sniper shots targeted the rebels searching the buildings for clues to Col Gaddafi's hiding place. One French TV cameraman was shot in the neck during the attack.

The fear that Gaddafi loyalists will use backstreets to carry out attacks across the city is pervasive in neighbourhoods around the compound.

Strangers moving around have been held and questioned by the local men who proclaim their sympathies for the rebels.

But there is no way of knowing who is truly for the uprising or against. The only way to vouchsafe for passing traffic is to know someone in the car.